


Experiment Gone Wrong

by TumTarum



Category: Jackbox Games, Jackbox Party Pack, Role Models - Fandom
Genre: Body Horror, Brain Gain, Gen, Mad Science, Science Experiments, Science Pellets, Transformation, see it's brain gain not brain drain because theyre becoming actively smarter?, sfw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:55:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27905560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TumTarum/pseuds/TumTarum
Summary: You know that funky disembodied face that helps out with the game "Role Models?" This is how they came to be.Commission for Lie_Menagerie!
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Experiment Gone Wrong

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lie_Menagerie (Octotrooper)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Octotrooper/gifts).



> This is the weirdest thing I've ever written. If you get nightmares from this, I am so, so sorry.

When someone says “social science,” I think of surveys, babies watching political ads, and recording faces to observe micro expressions. What I _don’t_ think of is chemical filled beakers and petri dishes. Guess what was in the building marked “RUSSEL SOCIAL SCIENCE CENTER”?

“Ah yes, the arrival of our newest guinea pig!” A lab-coat clad scientist said, her eyes smiling behind safety goggles. Her black bun slightly bobbed as we walked to a door at the opposite end of the room. “Did you fill out an application?”

“Yeah, I’m a bit strapped for cash right now,” I admitted. “Gotta pay for those textbooks somehow.”

“The _responsible_ type,” she said, giving me a wide grin. 

“I try,” I said. Was she trying to flirt with me? I was too busy with grad school to even think about getting into a relationship — but this place had advertised paying $250 for experiment participation, and my financial guilt weighed on me almost as much as the unfinished thesis draft I left open on my laptop. 

“Humble, too!” the scientist giggle said, stopping to look at me before opening the door. “Wow, and to think, I already know so much about you before we even start the test.” Oh right, social science. Examining people is kinda her whole shtick.

Even though I was able to put a reason to the scientist’s behavior, the room we had just entered I couldn’t explain. Microscopes and arrays of colorful fluids sitting in racks were at every station. I took extra note of the showerheads in the corners of the room; I hadn’t seen those since my days in high school chemistry.

“I wasn’t planning on taking a second shower today,” I joked, gesturing at the nearest orange wall-mounted shower. The scientist’s lips tightened and she quickly walked in front of me. I guess “funny” wasn’t going to be on the list of traits she had given me. I tried to change the subject. “So, how is this experiment going to work, exactly? I remember from the application that you were looking for 3-6 people. Where are the others?” Now that I thought about it, she hadn’t even reviewed the application — she’d just asked me if I filled it out. 

“We’re still waiting on them, my responsible friend. Don’t worry! I’m sure they’ll come in sometime today. You at least filled one out — that’s more than we normally get!” 

I realized she was talking about the applications and not the participants. Was I really the only one interested? Something seemed off about everything here. The atmosphere was completely wrong for social science, and nobody but me had applied for a high-paying experiment in a college town. Maybe this place was notorious for shady business and I somehow missed the memo. Oh god, maybe they were gonna test us with different sorts of street drugs! Could I somehow get away with that if it was a part of a legitimate experiment? What if I got arrested on my way home?

“Worrywart.” The scientist’s voice cracked me out of my train of thought. “I can’t tell you much about the experiment before the others get here. We’re trying to make sure it doesn’t have any sort of premeditation involved. The only thing I can tell you is you will be assessing your fellow lab rats and, depending on how well you do, you’ll be rewarded.”

“Rewarded,” I repeated. I knew that the $250 compensation seemed too good to be true. “So everyone’s splitting from a pool of $250 then? And it’ll be divided based on how… well we evaluate everyone else?”

“What? No, oh no, everyone will get their own $250. Cash,” she said, rubbing her thumb against her index and middle finger. “But we have something extra to incentivize our participants to do well. Nothing like a little bit of friendly competition, right?” I wondered if she had came up with this idea herself; her smile certainly said so. 

“Well… what’s the ‘something extra?’” I asked. “Or am I not allowed to know that either?”

“I really shouldn’t show you until everyone else gets here,” the scientist sighed. “But I want to _so badly_ …” Her rubber gloves squeaked as she clenched her fists.

“I won’t tell anyone about it,” I said. “I’ll try and forget about it during the experiment. I’ll even pinky-swear it.” The scientist looked at me with eyes the size of dinner plates. I was sure she was going to say something across the lines of “You know what? You can leave if you want!” or “Sorry, but maybe you’re not right for this experiment.” but instead…

“Responsible _and_ cunning? Those are opposing traits!” Her hands were shaking as if she had caught me at the scene of a murder with a bloody knife. Maybe what I suggested _was_ a bit out of line. “Not only does that not make sense, that just makes me even _more_ interested in experimenting on — no, _with_ you!” She grunted and focused her attention to the floor, breathing deeply.

“Sorry,” I said. “You know how they say ‘curiosity killed the cat?’ The responsibility was my cat there.” I wasn’t sure if what I said had actually made any sense.

“...but satisfaction brought it back,” the scientist said as if I had solved a riddle she was stuck on. I saw her signature grin return to her face. “Stay here. I’ll show you what it is, but only because I want to make sure that when we run the test, we’re working with the true, authentic you. No curiosity in the way from now on!”

The scientist was back in the room as quickly as she left it, cradling a fairly large glass jar to her chest. I couldn’t tell what was in the jar. The scientist must have noticed me squinting because she shoved the thing two inches from my nose. 

“These,” she said, rattling the contents of the jar, which I now saw were small, multicolored cubes, “are science pellets. If you do well in our experiment, you get more science pellets. If you have more than anyone else, you’re the Lab Rat of the Month!”

I stifled a laugh in my chest. Did she really think anyone would be flattered by being awarded some arbitrary “of the month” award? Participants were probably never going to be back in this lab after getting their money. 

The scientist’s only focus in the room now seemed to be the jar. She amused herself by shaking it and listening to the cubes bounce against the glass. Finally, she looked back at me, and, upon seeing my disinterested face, added, “They taste like _meat_.”

“ _Meat…_ ? Wait, they’re _edible?_ ” 

“Yep!” The scientist chirped, unscrewing the lid of the jar. She took a big whiff of the scent. A long exhale of relief followed. She then pointed the open container in my direction and raised her eyebrows. I didn’t even need to bring my head closer to the jar to smell them. The “science pellets” had a strong scent reminiscent of spicy beef jerky sticks! It was an appetizing scent, but something about the brightly colored cubes smelling that way unsettled me. 

“Um, hello?” I heard a new voice call out. The scientist and I turned to see a young woman around my age standing in the doorway. “Is this where the social science experiment is going on? I’m _really really_ sorry I was so late! Y’see, I got caught up in traffic, and then I was low on gas, and I forgot the—” 

“You’re in the right place, guinea pig!” The scientist cheerfully responded. “Come sit over here! Did you bring an application?”

“Oh no! I totally blanked on that too!”

“That’s fine, just come on over here,” the scientist said before muttering “flighty” under her breath.

The more I thought about this whole thing, the weirder it became. I was sitting in a social science lab filled with chemistry equipment, I filled out an application that was apparently not needed, and I was sitting across from a scientist that was psychoanalyzing the participants. The weirdest thing, though, were the brightly colored meat cubes sitting in a jar on the scientist’s lap. Would the texture also be removed from their candy-like exteriors and butcher shop scent? I had a bad feeling my metaphorical responsibility cat was going to lose another of its nine lives.

“Ah! You’re just in time!” the scientist said to a balding older man in the doorway. “Grad student, I presume?” 

He nodded his head and made his way towards the table. 

“Quiet,” the scientist noted, before checking the watch on her wrist. “I think now would be a good time to start the test.”

“But what if more people show up?” I asked. 

“We can work with two groups of three. It’ll be fine! I just can’t wait to get started. Are you three ready?” 

“Yes,” I said. 

“Mhm!” The young woman gave a thumbs up. 

The older man just nodded. 

“Perfect!” the scientist said, standing up. “Now, here’s how this experiment is going to work. First, you guys are going to pick a category. Something you all know a little bit about… like… uh… seasons! Then, I’ll write down some options on this sheet of paper. All of _you_ ,” she pointed to us, “have to write down what ‘season’ you think matches everyone best. This includes yourself.” 

The woman raised her hand. “Oh! Hey, hey, hey! Does this include you? Are you a part of this too?”

The scientist shook her head no, then continued her explanation. “Afterwards, if there’s a consensus on what ‘season’ represents you best, you will be assigned that ‘season.’ Write it down! And we’ll do that kind of thing two more times. Does everyone get it?” 

Nods of agreement were given all around. 

“And we have a special incentive for you to do well!” The scientist grabbed the jar of science pellets off the table. “These are our tasty science pellets! Everyone gets them at the end of each round, and, if the ‘season’ you chose for someone ends up being the majority, you get _extra_ science pellets. Whoever ends up with the most is my ‘Lab Rat of the Month.’ But no eating until after we finish, okay?”

Everyone nodded again.

“Great!” The scientist smiled. “Are we ready to begin?”

-

The experiment was running pretty smoothly, and was actually kind of fun! I had gotten the most science pellets in the first two categories. There was only one category left, and we had already decided on _Famous Puppets_. 

My focus was a bit sidetracked by the small bowl of brightly colored, beef scented cubes to my right. They smelled _so good_ . Surely having _one_ during the experiment wouldn’t be too distracting, right? 

“You’re a chatterbox, and you’re tight-lipped!” The scientist was talking to the other two participants. “This calls for some data analysis! You two, I need both of you to write down an answer according to this prompt…” 

It was a perfect time to sneak a science pellet. I popped the small cube into my mouth and it was just as I thought— the texture was completely mismatched from the look and smell! It had a stiff exterior, but not one hard enough to crunch. The inside was juicy, like a grape-- a very strange, beef jerky flavored grape. As weird as it was, there was something appealing about it. I couldn’t place whether or not it was the taste, the texture, or heck, maybe it was the fact the thing looked like candy. I had to have another and find out for myself. I popped another in my mouth, and was met with a horrendous gasp. 

“Oh, dear god, you didn’t eat a science pellet, did you?!” The scientist came over to me grabbing my shoulders and shaking me. Her eyes were the widest I had seen them all afternoon. “Okay, no, nobody gets science pellets now! Sorry everybody, this experiment is over!” She turned to the other participants. “Mega Chatterbox, Quasi-Tight-Lips, ask Tina at the front desk to compensate you. We have a situation! Get out!”

“What? What’s such a big deal that I ate a few before we were done?” I asked, watching the scientist desperately shoo the other two out of the room. She ran back to me immediately and took my arm. I was pulled under the bright orange showerhead and doused in hot water. “Why would you give them to us to eat if they weren’t safe?!” 

“They weren’t ready yet!” The scientist was pacing around. “Science pellets are supposed to _absorb_ the results of the test they’re being used in before being consumed! Even the _literal_ lab rats weren’t allowed to eat them early!”

“So what does that mean?! Am I okay now?!” I asked, shivering because of the difference in room temperature. “What’s going to happen to me? What’s going to happen to my body? My brain? What’s going to happen to you? What are the repercussions?” 

“Well,” the scientist’s voice was wavering, “we’ve only run _simulations_ of humans eating an unfinished science pellet, so we’re not 100% sure. But what showed up in every simulation was an insatiable craving for knowledge.” 

“Is that really bad? What if I want to know more? Is it not normal to be driven by curiosity?” Did I always ask this many questions? Had the change she described already taken effect? 

“Well, the thing is,” the scientist clasped her hands together, before facing me again with a twisted smile across her face, “no two simulations had any other similarities! So now, I get to see what happens _firsthand_.” 

“What? Can you at least tell me what some of the simulation results were? Will it give me a runny nose? Memory loss? Shouldn’t I be going to a hospital?” 

“I mean, we _could_ take you to a hospital, but don’t you want to see how this pans out for yourself?” 

I don’t know if it was the way she said it or the thought of seeing the results of an unknown chemical reaction that excited me so much. I could feel my breathing getting heavier, and it felt as if my legs were sinking into the ground. 

“Ooh, _that_ never showed up in our simulations!” The scientist pointed to my legs, somehow looking both horrified and delighted. I looked down to see that my legs below my knees no longer existed, leaving empty, open pant legs. A puddle of fizzling, dark blue liquid foamed beneath them. Strangely, I was in no pain, and I seemed to be the same height as normal. “Loss of lower legs I anticipated, but _levitation?_ I could’ve never guessed! Can you still feel your legs?”

“Below the knees? No,” I answered. As I attempted a step closer to her, more liquid came splashing out of the pair of jeans I was wearing before they completely fell off. Oddly, I managed to move not only forward, but upward as well. There was no pain. I wondered if it was because I was in so much shock. What happened to my blood? Would I lose my arms as well? 

“Are you still cold?” the scientist asked. 

I thought about it a moment. “Not particularly.”

“Because your lips are blue, like, COBALT blue,” she said. “The same blue as your leg goo. I wonder if you’re gonna lose your lips, too?”

Before I could say anything else, I threw up. The two science pellets I had eaten earlier clattered against the tiled floor, still perfectly cube-shaped, followed by a hard _thwap_ and then a stinging sensation in my lips. I reached my hand up to touch my face and was horrified to find absolutely nothing below my nose. 

Though I didn’t think it was possible anymore, I screamed. A low pitched wail came out a pair of blue lips — _my_ lips — that were lying face-up on the ground ten feet away. The sound was completely different than the nasally voice I was used to. 

“You had _two_ science pellets?” The scientist seemed to be ignoring my disembodied mouth. “We _never_ tested for that!”

Curiosity was starting to overwrite the fear I felt. How much control did I have over my mouth? I found I was able to move the tongue inside - which I didn’t know I still had - and I had a full set of thirty-two teeth. 

“Interesting,” I said, looking down at the mouth matching the words I spoke. I supposed it was _my mouth_ , somehow. I smacked my lips together a few times.

The scientist made a sort of humming noise. Was it in fear? Excitement? A mixture of both? I knew I shouldn’t ask but part of me was tempted to. I wanted to know what she was feeling.

As if to answer my ever-growing pile of questions, she spoke. “Oh, this is _fascinating!_ Your mouth still works, even though it’s not attached to the rest of you! Do you know what this _means?_ You’re somehow able to communicate without using vocal cords!”

As I tried my hardest to figure out how that was possible, I started getting a headache. An itching sensation had also started in my eyes. It was a bit like how they felt when I stood around cats- except instead of my eyelids swelling, my eyes were. My head felt like it was being pushed inward from the back until it finally went completely numb. My eyes stopped itching at the same time, though they watered a little. 

Suddenly, a massive weight was removed from me. I looked down to see my torso— my arms and my chest— fall to the ground. Instinctively I reached for my falling body. As I watched what I thought were my arms limply hitting the floor, I felt the fabric of my t-shirt between my fingertips. I looked down to see the shirt suspended in midair. It was like the lower half of my arms were still mine, only invisible, and the half-dissolved pair of arms on the floor was a fleshy exoskeleton of sorts.

“You’ve… you’ve become some sort of telepathic _monster_ ,” the scientist stammered. I _had_ to know the ratio of intrigue to panic. 

I let go of the remnants of my former torso, which melted into more fizzing, blue goop. I was less worried about the loss of my body and more interested in the new movement I’d been granted. It wasn’t hard to control my arms. They weren’t connected to anything, so I was able to move them freely across the room. But I couldn’t see them, and I wasn’t sure where they were until I accidentally slapped the scientist in the face with the back of my left hand. 

“Oww!” she cried, grabbing my hand. Her face lit up as she realized she was holding something completely invisible. “So it’s not telepathy… it’s… I don’t even know what to call it! Hold on!” She walked over towards a box of disposable gloves, and put one on my hand. “Now, where’s the other one?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Somewhere moist.”

The scientist shoved a second glove on my right hand, which was lying in a puddle of what used to be my legs.

“You really need to work on your observational skills,” she said, looking up at me. “The liquid was being displaced by the weight of your arm.”

“I’m not sure how I missed that,” I said. The scientist looked down at my disembodied lips and sighed. 

“What are we gonna do about that mouth?” she asked.

I stuck my tongue out. I found I could move my mouth freely about the room as easily as my arms, and brought them closer until they rested underneath my eyes. 

I glided towards the scientist and caught a glimpse of myself in her safety goggles. My remaining body was only a pair of oversized eyes, eyebrows, large blue lips, and of course, hands that were only visible with gloves. 

“How do you _feel_?” She asked. 

“Hungry,” I answered. I was already getting used to my new, deep voice. 

“Well, do you still have a stomach?” the scientist asked, feeling around for any other invisible body parts around her. “God, this is so weird! Absolutely _intriguing!_ But _really weird!_ ”

“What you see of me is all I can feel.” I didn’t have it in me to tell her that I was _desperately_ craving more of those beef-jerky scented cubes that had gotten me into this situation. Even the ones I had thrown up - fully formed - still looked appetizing to me.

“I can’t believe this is real,” the scientist said. It seemed like the shock was finally hitting her. “I actually feel kinda bad for you.” 

“Don’t feel bad for me,” I said. “I wouldn’t have been able to see something so incredible if I hadn’t ingested those delectable cubes. Look what I’ve become: I am a scientific marvel!”

“You know…” the scientist said, her smile creeping back onto her face. “We can always use more curious minds like yours in the Russel Social Science Center. How about it?” 

“What?”

“I know the original experiment didn’t work out, and I don’t think it’d be a wise idea to go back to grad school like, uh, _that,_ so… how would you like to work here?”

“Work here? Among the scientists? Me?” I couldn’t deny that I now had an insatiable craving for knowledge, just as the simulations had predicted. “I will get paid, right?”

“Sure. I still owe you $250. The first thing we probably need to work on is making the science pellets safer.”

“Can we let the ones from earlier fully mature? I must partake of that sensory experience again.”

“I can’t believe I forgot,” the scientist groaned, shaking her head. “Science pellet cravings were _also_ in the results of every single simulation.”

I found myself eager to start my healthy diet of research and pellets.


End file.
